February 23, 2010

not necessarily what i consider to be the best or worst looks from the collection, just a sort of..summary?

When September rolled around and Alexander Wang showed That Awesome Football Collection, I was totally ready to hop on board with this kid. This time around...not so much? Ehhh? Wang said it was supposed to be a sort of progression from a very Wall Street, banker-like feel to something more free-spirited and gypsy-inspired. The Wall Street stuff I liked. 3/4ths length pinstripe skirts with a strip of leather hugging the bottom, the camel coat-cape, and those woolen sunglasses-oh, the woolen sunglasses! Wang is practically an old hand at deconstructing "basics" by now. But these pieces mixed with somewhat awkwardly styled velvets and ill-fitting slips made for more of a mish-mash between the banker and gypsy personalities and less of a progression from one to the other. And as for the independent spirit pieces, the elements that were taken from that sort of costumey idea of a gypsy - lace, velvet, colors like mustard and maroon - weren't updated or developed enough to look much different from something you could find in a thrift store (and we all know I love thrift stores, I just don't love stuff you can find in a thrift store costing hundreds or thousands of dollars). The dresses that closed the show were draped in a way that felt more contrived than free-spirited, leaving the models looking more uncomfortable than liberated from the pinstripe and tweed we began with, which, as I understand it, was supposed to be the concept.

Alexander Wang definitely stepped more outside of the regular black black gray black gray thing and I'm so happy to see him putting dresses out on the runway that are not typically it-girl-y. The stuff did look better on models in the photographs backstage, and the accessories are pretty killer, but I'm pretty bummed! Still, not gonna lie, I do love a sweater-boot. It sounds like something the birthers of The Snuggie would make up, only better than that makes it sound. Oh, and the pearl stuff. I need more old lady garb.It is commendable that he did step more out of what I would guess, based on previous collections, is a kind of comfort zone, which leaves me excited for next season.